Giving Students a Voice

From Draft to Craft

We all love to be heard. Even the quiet ones need to have a voice. 

They need to know they aren't alone. 

I used to teach a two week mini poetry unit until about three years ago.  I found that when students wrote numerous poems within a couple of weeks of each other, they wrote about the same topic more often than not. I decided to stretch it out over three quarters. I now spend one week in the first quarter going over all of the poems we will be working on throughout the year, poetic devices, and we annotate song lyrics and poems to see the use of those devices in  different types of poetry.  

Once we cover all of the bases, we learn about one type of poem every few weeks. By the middle of the third quarter, they have numerous poems about many different topics. I love that they write at different times throughout the year because they change a lot in 8th grade. It's interesting to see them go back through their poetry in March. They're always surprised at what their topics were.

The types of poems we write may include:

Haiku

Acrostic

Limerick

Ode

Slam

Grabbing the First line

Blackout or Found 

Dialogue

Sonnet 

Some of the poems are simplistic, some funny, some passionate, some emotional, many sad, but most are personal. This project is where the student is given a platform to share their story or thoughts with others. A lot of them write about typical middle school drama, but many take the personal route and discuss death, depression, loss, or anger.

In March, I have the students choose one of their original poems. They spend a day or so editing the poem and planning how they can bring it to life by creating a visual representation of it. Then, we spend a week taking their poetry from "draft to craft" using old hardcover books. 

I give the students one hardcover book each and tell them to cut it up, paint it, fold it, glue it, color it, and do whatever they want to do to bring their poem to life. The results speak for themselves. Here are just a few of the 130+ project.

It was so great to watch them create their masterpieces. I can't wait for their families and the community to come and see what they've accomplished!



Original idea of Altered Art books formed by Julene Waffle.